Robert Eckels describes his experiences as former Harris County judge. He discusses politics in Harris county and in the city of Houston, as well as his involvement in handling the influx of the evacuees from New Orleans during hurricane Katrina,...

Mayor Bill White Collection;Houston Oral History Project : a great city voices its past.

Daniel Bustamante was born in south Texas and attended the University of Houston where he became politically active with the MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization) group and the leftist Raza Unida Party in the late 1960s. Throughout the 1970s,...

R. J. Christie joined a union after being laid off from the Sinclair refinery when he returned from serving in the Army. He became further involved in local union activities, holding offices with the Texas AFL-CIO, and was elected president of the...

Charles Allen grew up in Georgia and became a minister of the Methodist church when he was 19 years old in 1934. He moved to Houston in 1960 and served as the pastor of First United Methodist Church in downtown Houston until 1983. During his time...

Criss Cole served on the Texas legislature as a member of the House of Representatives and was then appointed as a judge in Harris County. Cole was instrumental in passing legislation to regulate water and air pollution in Harris County. In this...

Thorne Dreyer (son of Houston artist, Margaret Webb Dreyer) attended the University of Texas for a short time in 1963 where he became involved with the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) and established the underground newspaper, The Rag. Dreyer...

Dianne David was born in Corpus Christi and raised in Houston. In 1964, after seeing a need for more art galleries in Houston, she started to open her own art galleries. As a gallery director, she envisioned art galleries as vibrant places,...

In this interview, former Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz discusses the political scene in Houston during the 1970s; accomplishments during his administration as mayor of the city; African American community social and political aspects; minorities'...

An active member of NOW (National Organization for Women) since 1970, Betty Barnes was an advocate for women's rights and equal employment opportunities for Women. Barnes was an Instructor of Government at San Jacinto College, in Houston, Texas.

After coming out of the Navy in 1939, Earl Maughmer signed up for police training. At that time the Police department was an active force in political campaigns. He played a prominent part in the formation of the Houston Police Officers'...

Wilton Felder was born in 1940 to a musical family. He attended E.O. Smith and Wheatley High Schools where he joined the band and learned to play the saxophone. In high school he formed The Modern Jazz Sextet with a group of friends that included...

Ed Gerlach began playing piano at the age of 5 before switching his focus to soprano saxophone and later tenor saxophone. Gerlach discusses his career as a saxophonist, including his time with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Gerlach also share his...

Albert Goldstein worked with the Association of Jewish Charities at Bolivar, Maryland, and from 1946 to 1975 worked as the Director of the Jewish Community Council in Houston. Among his accomplishments were the award-winning Housing project for the...

Roy Soliz was born in Houston where he graduated from Jefferson Davis High School and attended the University of Houston before fighting briefly in World War II. He was a well-known civic activist in the Hispanic, Mexican American, and Chicano...

Ann Holmes started her career as a volunteer at the Museum and Miller Theater. After seeing an editorial in the local newspaper which she thought was wrong, she decided to find a place to give her voice. She joined the Houston Chronicle in 1942,...

Businessmen Welcome Wilson has served as Assistant Director of Civil Defense for the city of Houston; assistant to former Mayor Roy Hofheinz; State Director for the Defense Mobilization headquarters in Denton, Texas; and real estate and financial...